


All the King's Men

by Set_Suna



Series: Pogtopia Breakdown [10]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Dissociation, Eret's got Trauma™️, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, L'manberg with the errrr, Mentioned Dream, Near Death Experiences, No Beta We Die Like Wilbur in Skyblockle, Peer Pressure, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, its an au at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27704099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Set_Suna/pseuds/Set_Suna
Summary: The one time he showed his eyes to anyone, he was met with a horrible response. He'd taken off his glasses, one of the most vulnerable things he can do, and was met with fear. He didn't really blame Tommy, he was young. Seeing a man with fully white eyes and a terrifying scar must be pretty unsettling. It only worsened how he felt.Eret could stare in the mirror for hours and never know if the person staring back at him was really who he was.He reached up to his face slowly, gently pushing in on his cheek and watching the sunglasses begin to lilt. Everything was so familiar. So painfully, heart-warmingly familiar. He carefully took hold of the frames, the plastic cool on his fingertips. He remembered stone. A button under his hand. His fingers twitched.
Relationships: Eret & Floris | Fundy, Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu
Series: Pogtopia Breakdown [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986469
Comments: 15
Kudos: 288





	All the King's Men

**Author's Note:**

> Brain go brrr write about Eret's eyes. But yeah I tried here ya go.

Heels clicking on wooden floorboards. The crackle of fire in a furnace. A chest creaks open, making a sound slightly more pathetic as it closes. Eret was familiar with all these sounds. He heard them everyday for the past two and a half months. Whether it was Hbomb coming and going, the members of the Badlands chatting happily as they passed through, or Eret himself searching for something he hoped no one had taken from him yet. Eret knew these sounds. So why were they so foreign to him now?

He felt as if he was trespassing in someone else's home. Each step he took was tentative and carefully placed. He avoided floorboards he knew to be creaky. He climbed and descended the stairs slowly, not wanting to make more noise than necessary. He'd built this castle with his own two hands. It was his home, plain and simple. Yet, it no longer felt like it.

Dream had taken him out of power. Those days were over. He couldn't fight back, and Dream knew it. George was technically the ruler of this castle now. No matter how much Eret wanted to recoil and fight back, he couldn't. He couldn't win. That's why Dream had offered him power in the first place. He couldn't win on his own.

His crown was seldom on his head. Each time he passed the golden throne he used to look upon with pride, he knew it was there, sitting on the cushion, waiting for the next king to don it. It didn't feel right wearing it. It felt wrong without it, too. 

_"Eret, I need you to take your crown off, and those glasses while you're at it," Dream said. "I'm not asking. You no longer hold_ any _power over us."_

It made Eret's throat close up. Even the thought of having to remove his glasses, having to reveal his eyes... that was a step too far. Dream eventually left him alone, but... what he said couldn't be taken back. Every comment on his eyes left a mark. People often asked why he hid them. He could never give them an answer.

The one time he showed his eyes to anyone, he was met with a horrible response. He'd taken off his glasses, one of the most vulnerable things he can do, and was met with fear. He didn't really blame Tommy, he was young. Seeing a man with fully white eyes and a terrifying scar must be pretty unsettling. It only worsened how he felt.

Eret could stare in the mirror for hours and never know if the person staring back at him was really who he was. 

He reached up to his face slowly, gently pushing in on his cheek and watching the sunglasses begin to lilt. Everything was so familiar. So painfully, heart-warmingly familiar. He carefully took hold of the frames, the plastic cool on his fingertips. He remembered stone. A button under his hand. His fingers twitched. 

Shakily, Eret pulled away the glasses. He shivered, skin feeling coated in a thin layer of ice. He felt naked. Vulnerable. His eyes were the same, milky white as they always were. He heard his breath wavering with each inhale... exhale... The scar across his nose and through his eyes was still dark against his pale skin. His eyes still glowed with the healing magic needed to cure them. 

A freak accident was the cause of his appearance. He'd been gathering materials, mining alone in deep mountain caverns. It wasn't meant to be dangerous. A creeper had snuck up on him, knocked him back. He'd had his glasses then, too. They flew from his face and he fell. Fell, fell, fell deep into the earth. With one unlucky tumble, he'd lost it. His sight. One awful connection with a group of stalagmites. They'd left him bruised and bloodied, with a gaping hole in his side and a gash across his face. Across his eyes. 

Eret blinked. Blood dripped from his scar. He yelped, pushing back from the mirror. He tumbled to the floor, covering his face with his hands. He was shaking. His hands trembled against his cheeks. His face was hot and sticky and he couldn't see-

"Help," he whimpered, curling in on himself.

He should've been able to see. He should've been able to see something. The torches--why couldn't he see the torches he'd placed? It was dark and cold. His side was hot and wet. He couldn't breath. His lungs hurt, they wouldn't function. Eret understood what was happening all too quickly: he was dying.

Eret rubbed at his eyes. He rubbed them roughly and uncaringly until they hurt and his skin was chaffed. Tears stained his cheeks and welled up over his palms when he held them there. He wasn't in that cave. He wasn't lost and alone and dying in a damp, lonely cave. He was in a warm, lonely, castle. His castle. Every step, every floorboard, every window built with his own hands that weren't numb and useless from blood loss.

Heels clicking on wooden floorboards. The crackle of fire in a furnace. A chest creaks open, making a sound slightly more pathetic as it closes. Eret was familiar with all these sounds. He heard them everyday for the past two and a half months. Whether it was Hbomb coming and going, the members of the Badlands chatting happily as they passed through, or Eret himself searching for something he hoped no one had taken from him yet. Eret knew these sounds. 

So why did he feel so alone?

-

Maybe Niki should have been more worried, in a bigger rush. Fundy definitely seemed to be, tail flicking nervously and walking a few steps ahead of her. Niki was taking her time, picking flowers they passed and easily weaving them into a crown. Fundy glanced over his shoulder at her for the umpteenth time and picked up the pace, forcing Niki to follow along.

"Really, Niki, is it the time for that?" he asked. 

"Eret doesn't really wear his crown anymore," she said. "Have you noticed?" 

"What-? Yeah, sure--look, Niki, Dream and Techno are getting ready to make a move right now, and I don't think now's the time-"

Niki was worried. She knew Techno and Dream were coming and they were at risk of losing L'manberg again--god, not _again_ \--but she knew they'd all defend their home. They wouldn't lose L'manberg again. Not without a fight. But that's not what she was worried about. 

"I'm worried about Eret," she interrupted, threading two more stems together. 

Fundy stopped. He turned slightly to see Niki entirely. She knew what she looked like. Tired, braiding together a flower crown for a man who had his entire identity stripped from him in a matter of seconds. She felt like she could cry, but she'd already shed enough tears for two lifetimes. Fundy turned and kept walking.

"Then that's all the more reason to hurry," he said, snapping Niki back to attention. "If we're not fast, Dream will get to him again." 

Niki bit her lip. He was right. She knew he was. She nodded and stuffed the crown in her messenger bag. She bounded ahead, keeping pace and walking at Fundy's side. They were almost at the castle, anyways. She could see the wall and the watchtowers outside. She wondered what went on inside those walls. 

The castle was quiet. Niki heard nothing from the ramparts or the empty first floor. She could see Hbomb's room from the entrance, and it looked to be empty. She took a few steps forward as Fundy branched off to throne room. She listened, yearning for anything. Any sign of Eret. She could hear wind outside and Fundy shuffling around the throne room. The fountain in the center courtyard gurgled, but it wasn't accompanied by the usual bird song. She shut her eyes. _Focus, Niki._

She heard it. Crying. It was faint, but the dead silence in the castle made it audible. She kept it in the back of her mind as she went to find Fundy. Niki opened her mouth to speak, but shut it when she saw Fundy.

He was stood in front of the throne, staring at it with a muted anger in his eyes. Eret's crown laid abandoned on the cushioned seat. Fundy picked it up carefully, hands trembling. He looked like he would snap it in half in a heartbeat.

Niki hurried up behind him, placing a hand on the back of his shoulder. His grip on the crown loosened, and he set it back on the cushion. 

"I heard crying," Niki reported quietly. "Listen."

Fundy's ears perked. "I hear it too." 

They left the crown behind and ascended the closest flight of stairs. Niki could hear it clearer now, and she could definitely tell who it was. Her hands tightened around the strap of her bag. She hurried down a hall and pushed open the door to the room she knew to be Eret's. 

She nearly gasped. She nearly broke on the spot. Eret was pushed tensely back against the foot of his bed, crying and scratching at his eyes. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses. Niki dropped her bag and ran to him. 

-

Gentle fingers brushed Eret's shoulders. He jerked, startled, and made sure his hands were covering his eyes. Whoever it was, he couldn't let them see.

"Eret, it's-it's alright, it's just me," Niki's soft voice soothed. She reached out again, and when Eret didn't recoil at the touch she began to rub her hand up and down his arm. "You're okay, I promise."

"My-My glasses-" Eret stuttered, pulling his knees closer to his chest.

"Fundy, can you-?"

"They're right here!" Fundy's voice cut off Niki's. "I got 'em. Uh, uhm, here." 

"Don't look," Eret begged, hoping he didn't sound as desperate as he thought he did. 

"We won't. My eyes are shut and covered, you tell me when to open them," Niki announced.

"M-Mine too," Fundy added quickly. "Me too." 

Hesitantly, Eret lowered his hands. He only did so completely when he saw Niki and Fundy both had their eyes covered. Fundy was knelt beside him, offering up his sunglasses in an outstretched palm. Eret snatched them right up, feeling the instant relief of their weight back on his nose and behind his ears. His heart was still racing and he was still trembling, but it didn't matter because he could _see._ He wasn't _dying_ in that cave. He was in his castle-- _his castle_. It was...

It was familiar.

"You-You can look," he mumbled weakly. 

His fingers dug into his arms, a feeble attempt to stop his shaking. Niki's hand snaked into his, forcing him to open up. She squeezed his hand firmly, then gave Fundy a stern look. Fundy jumped, somewhat scrambling to hesitantly slip his hand into Eret's other. Eret gave his hand a squeeze, signaling the touch was okay. He saw Fundy relax, squeezing his hand in return. 

"Are you alright?" Niki asked him gently. 

"I-I don't think I am," Eret answered honestly, punctuating with a weak laugh and a subtle shake of his head. "Just--a lot of bad memories coming back, lately. Why-Why are you two here? Did something happen?"

Niki stared at him uneasily while Fundy answered, "Techno and Dream are readying a siege of L'manberg."

"No," Eret responded instantly, tightening his grip on their hands, "they're not taking L'manberg." 

"Can you do it?" Niki questioned seriously, leaning forward.

"I can help, I'm fine," Eret insisted. He paused, took in his shaking hands and wet cheeks. "At least, I will be." 

Niki's mouth flattened to a line, but she nodded. She slipped her hand away from his and got to her feet, going to the door to retrieve her bag. Fundy helped him to his feet. He clapped a hand to his shoulder.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, voice low. "You don't have to fight if it's just going to put you in a worse place."

Eret shook his head. "I'm going to fight. I'm not letting Dream rip something else away from me."

He turned to a tap on his shoulder. Niki waved her hand, asking him to crouch down. He did so slowly and curiously, gazing up as Niki pulled something from her bag and placed it on his head. One look in the mirror made his heart leap to his throat. A flower crown. 

"You may not be the king anymore, but that's not all you were, Eret," Niki said, staring at his reflection, too. "You're our friend. There's so much more to you than a crown and a throne. You built this castle. You built L'manberg's walls. Nothing will take away that passion. And... And forget the past, alright? You were a traitor. _Were._ Now, you're a soldier. On our side. Forget the past. Our future only holds potential." 

Eret swallowed the sadness and tears attacking his heart. He pushed aside the sorrow and held onto the grateful, welcoming warmth Niki's words provided. He nodded and swept his cape behind him. 

"Okay," he managed. "Let's go." 

Niki nodded, determined. Fundy bounced beside him, eager and anxious. As they left, Eret grabbed his sword. He sheathed it on his hip and followed his friends out.

He wasn't backing down. He wasn't as weak as Dream made him feel. L'manberg was his and all of his friends' home. This was _his_ god damn castle.

He would defend his home until the ends of earth. Gods be damned.

**Author's Note:**

> I want Niki to make an epic speech. Let Niki make an epic speech. 
> 
> I appreciate any and all comments/kudos/bookmarks you choose to leave! 
> 
> You can follow my [tumblr](https://quibbels.tumblr.com/) for fic updates and my [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/quiblii) to see more stuff from me!


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